Pubdate: Tue, 27 Nov 2007 Source: Charlotte Observer (NC) Copyright: 2007 The Charlotte Observer Contact: http://www.charlotte.com/observer/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/78 Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1331/a09.html Author: Philip M. Van Hoy `A MATTER OF FAIRNESS'? OR SELF-PRESERVATION? "A matter of fairness" (Nov. 19 editorial) notes not only that that the U.S. Sentencing Commission may cut at least two years off the sentences of 20,000 drug dealers now in federal prisons, but also that the Justice Department predicts this mass reduction would "unravel the success we have achieved in removing violent crack offenders from high crime neighborhoods." The Observer nonetheless supports this proposal and notes that the criminals freed will "need programs to help them" -- meaning, of course, transfers of resources and income from taxpayers. In advocating its goal of wealth transfers from the productive to the non-productive, including even the criminal class, the Observer subordinates the basic instinct of self-survival. Philip M. Van Hoy - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom